Lidia Thorpe sends King Charles a letter, page-45

Singapore was nothing more than a fishing outpost 70 years ago

No. It was always an important port for entrepot trade.

like most of Southeast Asia in the beginning of the 20th century none of them had industrialised.

This is like saying British deep water ports and the rubber industry in Malaysia didn't exist. Malaysia may not have had modern western technology during the colonisation (firstly by Portugal), but it was a developed society with cities and literate middle class technicians.

Yet here they are today, like many nations that were not colonised they all had industrialised with foreign trade and assistance by the 21st century.

I think you will be hard pressed to find a country that was NEVER colonised or invaded. Export orientation taken up in the 1960s was more successful than import substitution immediately postwar by nationalist leaders.


Tonga for example didn't have a system for money and ate people even less than just a 100 years ago had also industrialised by today without any colonisation.

You are splitting hairs. It was a British protectorate from 1900 - 1970. It did not industrialise until after the protectorate ended.